VoL 1920 XVI1 ] Recent Literature. 149 



there is nothing to indicate this to the uninitiated. Whoever prepared the 

 systematic index on pages 29 to 39 completely misunderstood this arrange- 

 ment just as we supposed a general reader would do. The heading " Genus 

 Acanthis," which was intended to include only the Redpolls but which is 

 followed by all the other Fringilhdae without a break has been carried on to 

 the following page of the index by whoever prepared it as " Genus Acanthis 

 concluded" under which we find the Swamp Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, etc.! 



While the general text is apparently free from typographical errors the 

 introduction gives evidence of very hasty preparation, first names and 

 initials of writers are often omitted and the names of such well known 

 ornithologists as Robert Ridgway and C. F. Batchelder are consistently 

 misspelled. 



All these matters are however trivial faults in an attractive and well 

 gotten-up volume. — W. S. 



' The Birds of North Carolina.' 1 — One of the most notable contribu- 

 tions to North American ornithology during the past year is the volume by 

 the Messrs. Brimley and Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson on the birds of North 

 Carolina. Adequate State bird books have heretofore been issued only 

 by the more northern commonwealths but North Carolina now comes to 

 the fore with one of the most satisfactory works of this kind that has yet 

 appeared — a work that is a credit to the authors, the publishers and the 

 State authorities and Audubon Society, who made its publication possible. 



The text consists of a historical sketch by Mr. Pearson followed by a 

 consideration of Life Zones and Distribution by C. S. Brimley. Then come 

 keys for identification and a systematic consideration of the 342 species 

 and subspecies of birds found in the State. The appendices comprise a 

 bibliography, a set of migration tables covering thirty-one years' observa- 

 tions at Raleigh by the Messrs. Brimley and Mr. S. C. Bruner, similar to 

 those published by one of the authors in 'The Auk' for 1917. There is 

 also a Glossary and no less than three indices. For some reason many 

 editors fail to realize that a single index is twice as useful as two and that 

 there is no possible advantage in the separation of the references which 

 only makes it more easy for one to search in the wrong place for what he is 

 seeking. 



The main text contains under each species, a description taken from 

 Chapman's ' Handbook,' a brief statement of the general range and range 

 in North Carolina, followed by an account of the bird in the State — its 

 habits, abundance, records of captures of specimens of rare species, nests and 

 eggs etc. The plan adopted seems admirable and the method of handling 

 the data leaves little to be desired. One or two species seem to rest upon 

 rather slender evidence as birds of North Carolina, as for instance, Puffinus 



i Birds of North Carolina. By T. Gilbert Pearson, C. S. Brimley and H. H. Brimley. 

 Volume IV. North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey. Baleigh, 1919. Boyal 

 8 vo. pp. i-xxiii, + 1-380, pi. 24, figs. 275. 



